Water in most parts of the country is plentiful and inexpensive. There are parts of the country, though, where fresh water is in short supply simply because there are insufficient sources or because high ambient temperatures necessitate high water usage. In these areas, water necessarily must be conserved. A high water usage rate is one way to force the average household to conserve water.
The cost of water can be sufficiently high to motivate someone to steal it. For instance, a neighbor or unwanted individual can normally very easily tap into a homeowner's water source through an outside water faucet. When the homeowner is away, it is a simple matter to hook up a garden hose to the unsuspecting homeowner's outdoor faucet and turn it on. Water diverted to the neighbor's yard for grass watering and other purposes can be expensive. It also can be difficult to detect since any indication there has been a wrongdoing only comes with a water bill. This can be long after the fact.
The problem of unauthorized water appropriation is a recognized problem in the drier and hotter climates. Simply turning off the water supply to the outdoor water faucet from inside the house is an obvious solution to the problem. It is also a very bothersome chore which may have to be repeated several times a day, e.g. each time the homeowner leaves the house. U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,414 describes a security locking device for an outdoor water faucet. However, there are a number of components which tend to make it expensive to produce and cumbersome to use.
There is a localized need for an outdoor water faucet article which it capable of limiting unauthorized access to the faucet. In accord with this need, there has been developed an article which has minimal components, yet is reliable.